Dehydrated!

"'Come!' Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life."  Revelation 22:17 (NIV)

I thought she was going to die.  On my birthday.

Yesterday morning as I got up, she didn't.  She didn't move.  Her eyes blinking sluggishly were the only sign of life.  I put my hand on her heart to feel the beat...slow...maybe a little unsteady.  Her breathing was shallow.  I cried.

I rubbed her head, her neck.  The skin hung.  She was dehydrated.

I got water and brought it right to her lips.  Thankfully she drank.  The night before she had refused...no matter how close I got it to her mouth...no matter how I pleaded.  You really can't force someone to drink.

We lifted her from her bed...and she walked.  She ate breakfast.  She drank more water.  I rejoiced. 

She wagged her tail.  Yes, I'm talking about my 15 year old dachshund, Cocoa.  She's my faithful companion.  She has her own chaise right beside my bed.  She goes to bed when I do.  She gets up when I do.  She sits beside me on my recliner...so much so that even if she's not there, I sit way over practically down in the crack of the left side, saving her space...and just out of habit. 

She is old.  I know that "her time will come."  I will be sad, but I will move on.  And probably buy a new sofa and chairs.

But I saw a spiritual lesson yesterday...as I wanted so desperately for her to drink.

It's a tragedy, really.  People are suffering from dehydration...spiritually.  The drink is offered, but they are refusing it.  Oh, how sad it must make the Father to hold it out before us over and over...living water...and we turn up our noses.  We turn away.

As Jesus said to the woman at the well, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."  John 4:13-14

In His sermon on the mountainside, Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled."  Matthew 5:6

Are you dehydrated?  Listless?  Struggling to move?

The "water" is there!  Drink!  And make His heart...and yours...rejoice!

Father, thank You for being our very source of life!  Thank You for providing all we need to live and to thrive.  Help us to drink so that we may be blessed...and so that we may please You.  Make our "wellsprings" bubble to overflowing!